CANDIDATE OF FIRST HUMAN TRIAL OF VACCINE SHOWS PROMISING RESULTS

The first Covid-19 vaccine of human trials shows promising results.

The Covid-19 vaccine candidate, called AZD1222, that was developed by AstraZeneca and scientists at Britain's University of Oxford, shared their results in an article published in The Lancet Medical Journal, and did not prompt any serious side effects and elicited antibody and T-cell immune responses.

The experimental Covid-19 vaccine was found to be safe, and produced an immune response in early-stage clinical trials in healthy volunteers. Researchers also claimed that the vaccine caused minor side effects more frequently than a control group, but that it could be reduced by taking paracetamol, with no serious adverse events from the vaccine.

"We hope this means the immune system will remember the virus, so that our vaccine will protect people for an extended period," study lead author, Andrew Pollard of the University of Oxford, said.

"However, we need more research before we can confirm the vaccine effectively protects against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) infection, and for how long any protection lasts," he said.

AstraZeneca has signed several agreements with governments around the world to supply the vaccine should it "prove effective and gain regulatory approval". These include shots being developed by China's Sinovac Biotech, from state-owned Chinese firm Sinopharm, as well as from the US biotech firm, Moderna.

The company, AstraZeneca's, which is among the leading vaccine candidates against a pandemic that has claimed more than 600,000 lives, said it will not seek to profit from the vaccine during the pandemic.